Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams - 02 December, 2013

Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams

Indian manufacturing returned to growth last month as a strong rise in orders pushed factories to step up production, a business survey showed , suggesting a slow economic recovery is on its way.
An expansion in manufacturing can only boost optimism as Asia's third-largest economy grew at a higher-than-expected rate in the three months.
The HSBC Manufacturing PMI, compiled by Markit, rose to 51.3 in November from October's 49.6.
The PMI index is the highest since March and marks its first time above the watershed level of 50 that divides growth from contraction in four months.
Offering hope that softness in domestic demand may be leveling off, overall orders grew for the first time in six months despite demand for the country's exports easing off.
The new orders sub-index rose to 51.9 last month, its highest since April. In October it shrank to 48.9.
Such strong demand augurs well and will be welcome news for a government losing popularity ahead of an election next year because of slowing growth and stubbornly high inflation.
The survey pointed to some good news on inflation as well, bringing relief to the Reserve Bank of India, which hiked interest rates by 25 basis points at back-to-back meetings to curb rising prices, taking the policy repo rate to 7.75 percent.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has advocated the abolition of the minimum eligibility criteria for Indian carriers to launch international services and said that the norm is acting as an impediment for the Indian aviation sector.
According to the regulation, every Indian carrier needs to complete five years of flying in the domestic space and needs to have a fleet of 20 aircraft to launch international operations.
Meanwhile, the civil aviation ministry has started the process of abolishing the five year/20 aircraft rule.
The abolition of minimum eligibility for international flying is first on the agenda of civil aviation minister Ajit Singh.
The abolition of international flying norm, making Air Navigation Services a separate company and creation of an aviation force are the three things to be done before the Lok Sabha elections scheduled to be held in 2014.
The abolition of this rule will benefit GoAir, which has completed more than five years of operations but does not have a fleet of 20 aircraft yet, and two new airlines that are being launched.

On the eve of WTO ministerial meeting, India said that the interim solution on food security as currently designed is not acceptable and the country won’t compromise its farmers’ interest or succumb to mercantilist ambitions of rich nations.There is a national consensus and complete political unanimity on this matter in India.
Developed countries have proposed an interim solution of four-year ‘peace clause’ during which period India would not attract penalty even if the 10 per cent cap is broken.
As per the existing Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) of the Geneva-headquartered WTO, farm subsidy has to be capped at 10 per cent of the total value of the farm production. India has raised issues regarding the way the cap value is benchmarked to the base price.

PV Sindhu bounced back from a string of poor results to win to win her second Gold Prix Gold title of the year. The 18-year-old, who had earlier won the Malaysian Open in May, beat Canada's Michelle Li 21-15 21-12 in 37 minutes to win the Macau Open.
Sindhu, the top seed, was completely dominant against the World No. 30 Li, seeded seventh at Macau.
The win would undoubtedly have boosted the Hyderabad shuttler's confidence after a run of early ousters recently. She had enjoyed a strong start to the year with the Malaysia Open win, a semifinal run at the India Open Super Series, beat fancied Chinese players en route a landmark bronze at the World Championships — the first singles medal since Prakash Padukone's bronze in the 1983 edition.
The results had won her an Arjuna Award and helped her reached a career high world ranking of 10. But in September she suffered a shock second round exit at the hands of a qualifer in the Japan Open, lost a tight first round encounter to World No. 18 Eriko Hirose in the Denmark Open Super Series, then was upset by World No.30 Scot Kirsty Gilmour in the French Open.

Gaganjeet Bhullar carded 16-under-268 for the week to lift his fifth Asian Tour title with victory at the Indonesia Open.
Bhullar, who had a forgettable outing at the World Cup of Golf last week, fired a bogey-free final round to come home the winner. He thus ended up being the wire-to-wire leader from round one till the end. He shot scores of 64 67 69 and 69.
Another Indian, Jyoti Randhawa claimed fifth place at 11-under-273 while Anirban Lahiri secured tied sixth at 10-under-274 to make it three Indians in the top-6. PGTI member Mohammad Siddikur Rahman of Bangladesh finished with a four-day total of 12-under-272 to bag fourth place.
Bhullar has had a brilliant season so far. He posted a runner-up finish at the Avantha Masters, a European Tour & Asian Tour co-sanctioned event, earlier this year. This win is expected to push him up on the Asian Tour Order of Merit, where he is currently ranked sixth.